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- Title:
- Libby Trees
- Date Created:
- 2021-04-03
- Description:
- Swan and Dampier spotted eastern Mindanao on June 22, 1686. The latter wrote that Libby Trees for sago grew wild in great groves of 5-6 miles long beside rivers. [Nipa palms likely.] Sago was a native staple food for 3-4 months. The tree’s pith is beaten lustily with a wooden pestle in a great mortar or trough after which it is collected in a cloth and held over the trough. Water is poured and the muddy substance collected below is made into cakes serving as bread. Sago was eaten similarly at all the Spice Islands. It was also dried into small pieces resembling seeds that were commonly eaten with almond milk (there is a Javanese almond) to cure those stricken by flux (discharge like diarrhea or even blood). Dampier did not realise yet that sago flour is made from several types of palms including buri. It figures in the Austronesian migration period of the Philippines particularly from the late third and second millennium BC. The SAGHU noted by Pigafetta in Tidore of 1521 may have been from black-thorned “Cycas revolta”. At that time Borneo traded sago as solid loaves. Precolonial sago would have figured in food preparations like BENIGNITY, SALAB, TAMPING, and PALAGSING. There are multiple industrial and commercial uses for sago that go beyond “sago at gulaman,” a Filipino comfort drink.
- Subjects:
- William Dampier Sago Sago palms Cooking (Sago)
- Exhibition:
- Dampier 1686
- Source:
- Sago Palm. Botanical Gardens, Washington DC. Public domain.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Libby Trees", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll200.html
Rights
- Rights:
- Public domain
- Standardized Rights:
- https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/